Applefilter, Why Can't I use Bootcamp on my MacBook Air?

July 15, 2018 4:21 PM

I have an early 2014 MacBook Air with the latest version of Mac OS High Sierra. I want to bootcamp this machine and install Windows 10, but Bootcamp Assistant is refusing to do so, claiming I need 40 GB free. I have 150+ according to Disk Utility. What gives?

I have done a bit of Googling on this issue and it looks like the consensus is that it's some confluence of TimeMachine, the new APFS filesystem, and Bootcamp. I DO have a Time Machine backup drive I use with this laptop when I remember to plug it in.

I've found solutions that involve using "tmutil," in the Terminal to manually remove/"thin," Time Machine snapshots, and this seems to work momentarily, but they always seem to come back. I just want to understand what's going on if possible.

posted by Alensin to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Make sure the .iso file you’re using to install Windows from is not mounted when trying to run Boot Camp Assistant. That can cause issues for whatever reason.

If you could post the exact text of the error message, that would be helpful.
posted by sixfootaxolotl at 5:48 PM on July 15, 2018

Response by poster: Some poking around and a post on Reddit has lead me to a "solution." It seems that Time Machine is somehow the culprit, and that disabling it, deleting snapshots, and theoretically re-enabling it when Windows is installed is the way to go.

I'm not really satisfied with knowing that this works without understanding why, but I guess I'll just hope Apple gets its software together in the next releases. I'd have to have to switch back to Windows more regularly.
posted by Alensin at 9:28 PM on July 15, 2018 [1 favorite]